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“They have no idea what a ‘remainder’ is. They think a remainder of 3 is the same as decimal 3.”
Quote:
Mary has read 120 pages of a novel, which is 40 per cent of the book.
How many pages does she have left to read?
Only 55 per cent of the student teachers got it right.
This is only 4th grade math in Hong Kong. Shake my head.
This is only 4th grade math in Hong Kong. Shake my head.
How are the teachers in your district?
Just looking at the title of the article will give a hint at why teachers are poor in math. A "mandatory crash course" in math is not going to solve the problem. If this solution is coming from a teacher program, no wonder many schools focus on test preparation materials, which to me is no different than a crash course.
Im not smart about math but without looking anything up:
A Remainder is the left over answer in a math problem like in division, there can sometimes be a remainder.
Yup!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohky0815
to solve you do 40% of 120 or .40x120=?
Close but not quite. In the problem, 120 is 40% of the book, right? So the idea is you want to try and figure out what 100% of the book is, or the whole book. So how to do that? Well, there are a few formulas that you can use if you know them, but if you don't, you can also use some "common sense". You know that two times 40% is 80%, right? And half of 40% is 20%, right? So you can figure out that:
40% of the book is 120 (from the problem)
80% of the book is 240 (just double it)
20% of the book is 60 (just halve it)
Once you know the above, the rest is easy. 80% plus 20% is 100%. So the book is 240 + 60 pages, or 300 pages.
You can now check your work by doing what you said earlier, which is 40% of 300, or .40x300=?
If you type that into a calculator you get 120, which is the number we started with, so the answer was right! The book is 300 pages long.
Now all you have to do is figure out how many pages are left to read, which is simple subtraction.
All I expect of elementary teachers when it comes to math is that they're proficient to the grade level that they teach at. They don't have to be able to step in teaching at secondary high school levels.
There's a lot more involved to being a good elementary teacher. You can have AP Calculus teaching ability and be a lousy elementary school teacher.
Well if that's a 4th grade math problem I don't really expect K, 1st, 2nd or maybe 3rd grade teachers to be able to teach that. I mean, they should be able to solve that (as should other college educated adults) but it's really not a big deal unless that's the curriculum they're supposed to be teaching.
In the problem, 120 is 40% of the book, right? So the idea is you want to try and figure out what 100% of the book is, or the whole book. So how to do that? Well, there are a few formulas that you can use if you know them, but if you don't, you can also use some "common sense". You know that two times 40% is 80%, right? And half of 40% is 20%, right? So you can figure out that:
40% of the book is 120 (from the problem)
80% of the book is 240 (just double it)
20% of the book is 60 (just halve it)
Once you know the above, the rest is easy. 80% plus 20% is 100%. So the book is 240 + 60 pages, or 300 pages.
You can now check your work by doing what you said earlier, which is 40% of 300, or .40x300=?
If you type that into a calculator you get 120, which is the number we started with, so the answer was right! The book is 300 pages long.
Now all you have to do is figure out how many pages are left to read, which is simple subtraction.
300 - 120 = 180
Mary has 180 pages left to read.
And now you know!
You made it overly complicated.
Answer = 120 x 1.5 = 180. That is it.
Why "times 1.5"? You may ask. It is because the remaining 60% is one and a half times of the 40% done.
Any body, kid or adult, can do this fast and easy if they understand the concept of percentage.
As noted, a great many people with a high level of math proficiency and interest choose career paths other than teaching.
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